All I Want for Christmas by Joanna Bolouri

 About the Book

Title: All I Want for Christmas

Author: Joanna Bolouri

Publication: Quercus (1 Oct. 2020)

Summary (taken from the back cover):

What if the love of your life was your best friend's girlfriend... and you were the one to set them up?

When Nick loses his job and is dumped by his glamorous but demanding girlfriend, he is forced to grudgingly accept work as a Santa at a local Christmas grotto. As his friends are getting married or promoted, Nick spends his days being terrorised by unfriendly elves and cried on by snotty, spoiled children.

Then he meets 4-year-old Alfie. All Alfie wants for Christmas is for his mum, Sarah, to be happy again. Moved by the boy's selfless wish, Nick arranges a date between Sarah and his best friend, Matt. But as Sarah and Alfie become part of all their lives, Nick realises that happiness for Sarah and Matt might mean heartbreak for himself.

What I Think

Joanna Bolouri throws her readers straight into Christmas and with it Nick's dire situation as we join him in the dressing room putting on his outfit for his first shift as Southview Shopping Centre's Father Christmas. Only in subsequent chapters do we find out which events led up to his donning of the festive Santa suit. 

Nick and Matt's banter in the early chapters belied their deep friendship and I wasn't sure that I was going to like either of them. However, as the book progressed and more details of their pasts were revealed, I liked them both more and more, which is what made the book so compelling and difficult to put down, because although I was rooting for Nick, I didn't want Matt to get hurt either. 

All I Want for Christmas is a lovely festive novel with a wonderful cast of characters. If you're looking for something to read on a dark evening in the run up to Christmas, look no further than Joanna Bolouri's latest novel. 

Thank you to Katya Ellis at Quercus books for my ARC in return for an honest review. 

About the Author

Joanna Bolouri worked in sales before she began writing professionally at the age of thirty. Winning a BBC comedy script competition allowed her to work and write with stand-up comedians, comedy scriptwriters and actors from across the UK. She's had articles and reviews published in The Skinny, the Scottish Sun, the Huffington Post and HecklerSpray. She lives in Glasgow with her daughter. 

Website: joannabolouri.wordpress.com/

NaNoWriMo_2013 #4 Lagging Behind

As some of you may be aware, I did NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) once before in 2011. The aim of the game is to write 50,000 words (an average novel is 100,000 words) in the month of November with the idea being that you would be well and truly on your way to having at least half of a novel. You can, of course, write more if you want to and your fingers haven't fallen off from typing.

Week 3 started on Friday and since Thursday I haven't written a word because I've been sick. By Friday 15th - the halfway mark - I should have got to 25,000 and by today I should be at about 28,000. Currently I'm at 21,351. So I'm behind. Seriously behind. However, the way I see it is: I'll either catch up, or I won't. Either way, nothing too serious is going to happen. I'm just going to keep writing. 

Good luck to everyone else who is taking part! 

NaNoWriMo_2013 #1 The Warm-Up

As some of you may be aware, I did NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) once before in 2011. The aim of the game is to write 50,000 words (an average novel is 100,000 words) in the month of November with the idea being that you would be well and truly on your way to having at least half of a novel. You can, of course, write more if you want to and your fingers haven't fallen off from typing. 

In 2011 managed to write just over 50,000 words in the given time frame and was very pleased with that. What have I done with it since? Very little. About a year later I showed the first chapter to my critique group and they said very nice things about it, but I'm still not happy with the structure of it. I won't bore you with the details, but it needs A LOT of work, so it's going on the back burner for now. The story is still playing around in my head and hopefully one day I'll sit down and rewrite it properly. 

Last year I was busy with flash fiction, so didn't do NaNoWriMo, but this year I've decided to give it a go again. However, I'm not trying to write a novel. I'm aiming to write 50,000 words of short stories. If each short story is 5,000 words, that's only ten short stories. My short stories aren't usually that long, so I guess I'll have to write a few more! I've been busy in October thinking of potential stories and characters and hopefully in November I'll be set to write, write, write! 

I'll keep you posted...